Thomas Daniel Green (December 21, 1857 near

Brantford, Ontario Brantford (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River (Ontario), Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by County of Brant, Brant County but is politically separate wi ...

– November 29, 1935 in

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) was an early

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amateur

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player, ice hockey executive, engineer and surveyor. He was a

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people (Kanien’kehá:ka), an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language (Kanien’kéha), the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a ...

, possibly the first Mohawk accredited land surveyor in Canada. Because of his Mohawk status, he faced discrimination seeking full-time work with the

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Biography

Born the youngest of six children to Daniel Green & Mary (Crawford) Green in Alford, Ontario, outside of the

Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of whom live on the reserve. The six nations of the Iroquois Confederac ...

lands, He attended the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, His success at the Indian Residential School led Robert Ashton, the Superintendent, to recommend, after two years at the school, that he write the entrance exam for Brantford High School. In 1875, Thomas obtained the highest grade of all the forty-one applicants from the public schools in Brant County. He tutored other students to raise money to attend

McGill College McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

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, graduating with a B.Sc. in 1880. He is first noted playing hockey for the 1883 Montreal Winter Carnival Tournament winners McGill, where he was studying engineering. After completing his studies in Montreal, he moved to

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seeking work with the Canadian federal government. He succeeded only in receiving temporary work with the

Dominion Land Survey The Dominion Land Survey (DLS; ) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout of the Public Land Survey System used in the United St ...

, his hiring to a permanent position blocked by A. M. Burgess, the deputy minister of the Interior, although he was recommended by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald. In Ottawa, he joined the

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in time to play in their first competitive season of 1883–84. In 1886, he became the first president of the

Amateur Hockey Association of Canada The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) was an amateur men's ice hockey league founded on 8 December 1886, in existence until 1898. It was the second ice hockey league organized in Canada, after one in Kingston, Ontario started in 1883. ...

, considered the first organized ice hockey league. Green eventually left Ottawa and became a

land surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

in Ontario. He moved west and surveyed mines in the Yukon, town sites in Alberta and rail lines in Western Canada.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Thomas D. 1857 births 1935 deaths Canadian Mohawk sportsmen McGill Redbirds and Martlets ice hockey players Ottawa Senators (original) players Six Nations of the Grand River people